.Brazil.

While riding the plane to Brazil, I kept bugging our ONE Portuguese speaker to teach me some words. I was convinced that I would learn five words a day. I ended learning probably ten. I still remember some:

Obrigado/a: Thank you

Desculpe: Excuse me

Frango: Chicken

Bom Dia: Good day

eu falto: I miss you.. for brady of course!

Brazil was gorgeous! The first city we stayed in was RIO de JANEIRO! One day I will take b back there! Our hotel was right on the beach. My favorite day was spent body surfing, laying out and playing beach soccer and volley ball. We also visited sugar loaf, PUC-Rio (a brazilian university that was surrounded by jungle), O Globo, Natura and the enormous Christ the Redeemer statue.

Some of my favorite things about Brazil were :

The Halls they sold on the street. They sell them individually for $.50 as mints.. tried it. Gross.
Inca Cola! Soo Good! The waiters would just assume everyone wanted one. I loved the glass bottles they served them in.. I felt really cool.

Arcor! A chocolate manufacturing plant was the perfect place for me! It was fun to see how everything was made and packaged. As we were leaving they gave us a HUGE bag of assorted chocolates. It took all I had to save some of this pure bliss for B.

We were able to go to a neat pottery museum. It was fun to spend time with my girls and needless to say we got a little crazy!

Speaking of crazy...

We toured Natura, the manufacturing natural make up plant. At the end of the tour they let us sample all the make up we wanted! We went subtle.

. kind of... .... :) I do like make up!
The beaches of RIO! Look how blue the water is and white the sand is!
This statue is over 130 feet.. it's huge! So cool!
The food was SOO good! One night a couple of us stayed home from a club and went to a local restaurant that was so unbelievably tasty! We also found a cute bare footed band playing on the beach.
The all you can eat pizza in all different flavors. I ate (or at least tasted) slices! Everyone was amazed! There was everything from BBQ shrimp to chocolate strawberry. It was fun being rolled out of the restaurant.
The awesome Capoiera group we saw performing on campus at PUC-Rio. It's a dance group that looks like they are fighting.. it was soo fun to watch! Especially since Turbo Jam uses it in their work outs!

The funniest story in Brazil happened while we were laying out on the beach. A cute little old man wearing a speedo came around selling henna tattoo's. No one wanted one so he gave a few of us free tattoo's to use as marketing. I was the third one to get a "free" tattoo. He just grabbed my arm and started drawing. As I was walking away he yelled at me and said.. "Where you going? You owe me money!" So the above Rio tattoo is my free/non free tattoo. Oh Brazil! I do miss you

.. made from the chocolate of the all-you-can-eat pizza!

.Chile.

From the time we left SLC to the time we arrived in Santiago, we had been traveling for over 24 HOURS! This trip took all the novelty out of planes for me!

Chile was the first country we went to. We stayed in a Best Western which helped me feel at home a little. The first city we went was Vina del Mar, then Valparaiso and ended in Santiago. In Chile we visited a University, Banco Santander, the shipping company CSAV, Weir Minerals and the U.S. Embassy. We also spent a day in the beautiful Valparaiso.

What I remember most about Chile was the european fashion and architecture,

the stray dogs that followed us EVERYWHERE,

the irresistible gellato we got every night,

the down time we were given to explore the town and gorgeous beaches,

staying in the Best Western, seeing all the different fruits getting sent all over the world,

and the tour of Valparaiso.

The most uncomfortable thing that happened to me was in Chile. On my neck there was a sebaceous cyst that became infected. It grew to the size of a quarter and I was running a fever. At first my teacher thought it was a hickey (which became the running joke for the trip) but when it kept growing, he insisted that I go to the E.R. So we grabbed an interpreter, a taxi and headed to the hospital. The doctor finally stuck needles in it while saying in broken english, "relax..relax.. I'm good doctor!". After we finally left the doctor with my neck all bandaged up we spent TWO HOURS walking the streets finding a cab. This was at 1:00 AM! I have never been so scared! Someone was looking out for us because we finally found a cab, a 24 hour pharmacy for my meds, and made it home!

This took up most of my time in Santiago so I barely had time to sight see.

When I was packing, I debated over putting a warm jacket or a light one in my suit case. I decided to throw in a light one. When we arrived in Chile the first night it was 20 DEGREES!

As you can guess I was very chilly in Chile but I loved it! I loved the food and the people! Very classy and european. Hopefully I will go back... someday, someday.

.South America.

When I was a freshmen I heard about the Huntsman Scholars Program. This program is a scholarship made possible by the generous donations of Jon M. Huntsman to the business school. The people on scholarship were given the opportunity to go on a summer experience to South America, Asia or Eastern Europe and then another trip in the fall to Europe. When I heard about this experience I became obsessed! I worked on my application for months. It turns out it was in the Lord's plan for me to get the scholarship.

This all happened before B and I were even engaged. After we got married, I realized how hard it was going to be to leave him for two full months. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to any of these! After much prayer we decided that I should go on the South America summer trip and not the fall Europe trip.

Thirty days. Thirty days doing the most adventuresome, tiring, mind blowing things I have done in my life. Yet they were the most lonely days I have ever, and hopefully ever have to spend with out my other half. It was the hardest thing I ever did, yet it brought me so much closer to my sweet hubs.

I have never cried so much! I remember hiding in the airport bathroom before our group left the states. B was on the phone telling me everything was going to be ok but I just couldn't stop crying! Feeling like such a wimp I stayed in the bathroom for over an hour with my feet on the toilet doing my best to silence my sobs. Thank goodness for skype other wise I would not have made it through the month! The next three posts will each be about the different countries we went to and everything I did and saw!